TeachUp! Blog

With the end of the school year at Long Beach Middle School as brings to a close my year as a TeachUp! Intern and I have enjoyed it. All of the teachers have were welcoming during my time at LBMS and enjoyed the help from me showing them new technologies to use in the classroom. Showing the teachers new ways to review and teach their classes that it more on a level that students will enjoy was a delight. Such as creating a PowerPoint game for two of the sixth grade teachers to review for their final exam and being told later that the students enjoyed playing the game multiple times. Being in the TeachUp! Internship has taught me to push my self more for find a solution for problems.

26 May 2010 ~ 0 Comments

From PCMag.com:

Schools in Oregon will soon have the option to embrace homework, lessons plans, and lectures in the cloud. The state is the first to adopt Google Apps for Education in all of its public schools, Google announced Wednesday.

Starting today, all school districts in the state will offer access to Google Apps – including Docs, Sites, Video, and Groups – to all teachers, staff, and students. The suite will also include e-mail filtering and protection from Postini, shared contacts via Google Contacts, Google Calendar, private online discussion groups via Google Groups, Google Talk, and iGoogle.

“School funding has been hit hard over the past couple of years, and Oregon is no exception,” Jaime Casap, Google Apps education manager, wrote in a blog post. “This move is going to save the Department of Education $1.5 million per year — big bucks for a hurting budget.”

Read the rest here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2363184,00.asp

30 April 2010 ~ 0 Comments

I showed Mrs. Holt one of the teachers at my school the benefits of using Windows Movie Maker as well as showing her the basics to movie maker. The program is giving her excel students two options on their digital story book projects. The digital stories that her excel students are creating consist of pictures that she has taken throughout the year as well as their own words about the project that they have worked on throughout the year and which projects were their favorite. The students are given the choice to create there digital story books in either Microsoft PowerPoint or Windows Movie Maker. I have been and still am working along side Mrs. Holt and her students to show them other benefits with Windows Movie Maker as well as any question they have with Microsoft PowerPoint 2003 and 2007. At the end of the year each of the students will get a disc that has their story book on it so they will be able to go back and look at the story book they created in their excel class this year.

08 April 2010 ~ 1 Comment

From February 9th to 12th, 2010, DOT USA TeachUp! Interns were trained by representatives from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. Adrienne Gayoso, the Clarice Smith Education Specialist, Elizabeth Eder, the Assistant Chair for National Education Partnerships, and Molly Sinclair, Education Specialist, traveled to Mississippi and Louisiana in order to facilitate the training. Over the course of four days, they presented their training session to almost 200 TeachUp! Interns, in addition to over 20 teachers from local schools.

Each training session opened up with the creation of a concept map featuring ideas for incorporating art into classroom activities. Adrienne then emphasized a common goal between the Smithsonian Institute and TeachUp! Interns: working with teachers and helping them incorporate new methods and strategies in their classrooms. Although the Smithsonian Institute is focused on the incorporation of art and TeachUp! on the incorporation of technology, these goals actually overlap a great deal. Adrienne explained this overlap: “We feel it’s very important because artwork is an interesting window into the world, an interesting window into the way people think about how they live and where they live, and we feel that it an excellent teaching tool for those reasons. In addition, technology engages students in new and exciting ways, and we feel that it’s possible to integrate both technology and art into the typical classroom across the country.” Because it is difficult and expensive to actually travel to Washington D.C. with an entire class in order to visit the museums, the Smithsonian has long been a leader in developing Internet based points of interaction, allowing the Smithsonian museums to instead come to the classroom.

Interns then participated in several activities intended to get them thinking about art and visual literacy. They learned about reading art object labels, followed by visual literacy exercises based on both individual writing and group discussion. The two groups then came together to compare the interpretations derived from each of the exercises. Following these exercises, the Interns were given a walk through of how to schedule a conference for a class to create a virtual conference with the Smithsonian Art Museum in the future, and an explanation of what to expect and the types of material that could be discussed.

The training then shifted to the Smithsonian Institute’s website and ideas for incorporating art and technology into the classroom simultaneously. The website features lots of videos along with interactive, media rich applications such as “Picturing the 1930s,” an application that allows one to learn about the 30’s through several different types of media, and even create and share documentary style productions. Finally, the Interns were asked to pick a piece of artwork from among several options and then use the website to create a themed collection based on this piece of art. They then used various tools such as Audacity and Voice Thread in order to narrate the collection they created. This activity is one that the TeachUp! Interns could introduce to any class, as the theme could relate to any topic, from math to English to music. The Interns were all excited about what they had learned at the training sessions. “The thing I liked the most about this workshop is the ability for the classroom to have video conferences with people from the Smithsonian and to have virtual filed trips with some of the resources they have,” explained TeachUp! Intern Mikkel Allen.

Thanks to the efforts and knowledge sharing provided by the Smithsonian trainers, TeachUp! Interns now have many new tools and resources to add to their repertoire as they head back to their schools, ready to pass on these new tools to thousands of Mississippi and Louisiana public school teachers!

Flickr Gallery:

Videos:

Concept Mapping Video
Object Label Video
Visual Literacy Video
Intern Feedback Video

03 March 2010 ~ 2 Comments

There was an intern meeting today about TeachUp!’s shift of perspective from individual work in the school to team projects.  After the visit from the Mexican Delegation and a very good presentation about Photostory it seems like management feels like we get more done as a team.

  This seems to be the new way we are working.  So I was wondering if anyone was assigned projects and what they are up to or if anyone else has taken note of the shift in our scope of work. 

Lets see what everyone is up to.

-Chase

22 February 2010 ~ 1 Comment

Hey everyone! My name is Jessica and I am a TeachUp! intern at Moss Point High School. I absolutely LOVE my job as an intern. It has helped me in so many ways. The interns that I work with are awesome and I have created many lasting friendships with them. At our school, every teacher has a Promethean board in their classroom and several teachers have activslates and activotes. I am really trying to push my teachers to have more student interaction with the boards and accessories. From the classrooms that already have a lot of student interaction with these things, teachers tell me it really helps with the students grades. I talked with the Instructional Technology Coordinator and she has come up with the idea of rolling out an ipod cart at the high school. What she wants the students to do is to come in, pick up an ipod, listen to the recorded lesson and take notes, then log onto Moodle and take a quiz about what they just learned. I think this is a good idea because as I have read in several education magazines, the students seem to really like this. I can’t wait until I can start training the teachers on how to use this because I think this will really make a difference in the students grades. This past week, I also gave several teachers blank powerpoint game templates that they could use for test review games. The games I gave them were Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, and Jeopardy. All the teachers have to do is just go in there and enter the questions and the answers and they are set. I can’t wait to see how the students react to having fun while learning.

12 February 2010 ~ 1 Comment

Since starting my TeachUp! Internship in November I have learned a lot about all of the new technologies. New technologies that are used in the classrooms on daily bases such as the Sympodiums and Smart-boards. I have also been able to find some educational web-sites that work along with the interactive boards to others that can be used with out the boards that give the teachers new ways to teach as well as new interesting ways of the students to learn by. One of the web-sites that I found that did not need to be used with the interactive white boards was an interactive cell from The University of Utah that is:

http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/begin/cells/insideacell/

Since starting the internship for TeachUp! I have learned a great deal that I enjoy sharing with the teachers as well as learning new ways to use technology for myself.

11 February 2010 ~ 1 Comment

My name is Vanessa. I am the TeachUp! Intern at Pineville Elementary located in Pass Christian yet still in Harrison County School District. I work at a very small school. We have 142 students and 7 teachers. It is great because I get the opportunity to touch base with each teacher every day. I really get to work one on one with them as often as they need it. Almost every teacher here is at retirement age so we had to start with basics. When I first arrived at Pineville, I would send the teachers e-mails and eventually realized that some of the teachers never got them because they did not know how to check their e-mail. I am happy to say that they are now checking their e-mails, having their students create Power Points, utilizing the computer lab, fluently using their SmartBoards that were installed this year, using software that the district provides for them more often and effectively, and actively engaging the students through technology.

05 February 2010 ~ 3 Comments

So here is an update on the project I have been assisting a fellow intern with. We ran into a few little problems and things were delayed a little bit but on January 27th this project finally came together. I had been in contact with the Mississippi Press and they sent out a reporter and a camera guy to do the story.

I wanted to make sure things were going to go right this time around so I texted Brandon to see if he wanted me to go before the scheduled appointment to make sure things were set up and working. I called Mrs. Mercer who is kind of like our overall mentor in the Moss Point School District. She rode with me over there just in case something was wrong. We ran into the same problem we had run into last time, they were using dial-up internet. The last time we went, the modem was broken and Paris’ family was waiting on the new one to come in. After Brandon and J.J. arrived, we all ended up driving over to one of Paris’ relatives houses because they had DSL.

Once we arrived, the three of us started setting up the laptop and camera. For some reason the Windows Live would not show up on the computer so we went back through and tried reinstalling updates. While waiting on the installation, the people from the Mississippi Press showed up to interview Paris and his family. Once the updates had been installed we tried doing a test call with Mrs. Mercer  who was over at West Elementary in Ms. Dunkley’s room (Paris’ teacher). When we were trying to call Mrs. Mercer, the microphone we had was not working. The mic should have been a plug-in-play but the computer was not recognizing that it was even plugged in. After we searched through some different options, J.J. decided to do some research and he found a driver download to hopefully make the microphone work.

Once the updates and drivers had been installed and Windows Live was up and running, we connected with Mrs. Mercer who was at West Elementary in Ms. Dunkley’s room (Paris’ teacher). After a little volume problem, Brandon and J.J. figured it out. When we started talking to Mrs. Mercer, she could hear us but we were unable to hear her. Something was wrong on her side but she called in Ms. Turner to help figure it out. Once that problem was solved we were up and running.

After things were working okay, Paris’ came and sat down to see how everything worked. While talking to Mrs. Mercer, the sound went out so Brandon shut down Windows Live and restarted it. Once he did that, things worked fine. Paris’ family along with the reporter, were in the room watching as we all communicated back and forth with Mrs. Mercer so Paris could see how Live actually worked. Once everything was working the way it should be, we were all sitting there waiting until Paris’ class came back from their Classworks lab. While waiting, JJ asked if we should get footage from the actual school. Since we had a little time before the class came back, I headed over to West Elementary to record the students first reaction to being able to talk to Paris through this new setup.

      When the students came in they headed straight towards the computer to see what was going on. Paris’ teacher, Ms. Dunkley, made a special “center” at a table in the back of the room devoted to Paris. She had three students at a time come back to the table to talk to Paris. The student’s seemed excited but still a little nervous. All this new stuff was in their room that they were not used to. While I was recording Mrs. Mercer was asking the students questions trying to get them to talk a little bit more. The first group started to really open up and talk and they even invited Paris to a multi-cultural event the next night at their school (which he accepted). From what I saw at the school, Paris seemed to be really shy but I think I would be to if all of this new stuff was there.

      I feel this project was a great success. By Brandon and Ms. Dunkley coming up with this project, it eliminated the need for a home-bound teacher to visit Paris’ house to help him with his lessons. Before, Paris did not have any interaction with his classmates. Now all that has changed and Paris can actually sit in his class (virtually) and interact with them as if he was actually sitting in the room. Brandon has it set up so Ms. Dunkley can send worksheets through Windows Live and Paris can receive them, complete them, and then send them back to her. Brandon called me yesterday and said that he will be training Ms. Dunkley and Paris aunt on Monday if I wanted to come and record some. Paris’ family seems really excited that his life can kind of get back to normal and he can keep in contact with his classmates.

     I am so glad I got to assist Brandon and JJ in completing this project. I think this will truly make a difference in Paris’  life because I know it has made a difference in mine

04 February 2010 ~ 1 Comment

This past month I’ve worked on filming and editing the first video success story for the TeachUp! program, which will be posted on our YouTube account soon. As you may have read in earlier posts, Brandon Dixon and Jessica Dawson in Moss Point worked on a project that allowed a sixth grade student to participate in his classes from home via video conferencing while he recovers from a major operation.

In addition, I’ve been working with the videos coming in from other interns which feature tech tips and tricks. It’s very exciting to see all the good work that’s being done – and I love opening my inbox to see that a new video has arrived! In fact, any time I see a new post on Twitter, the blog, or Facebook, I get very excited, because it’s so cool to see all of the work you guys are doing in the schools. If you haven’t taken the time to post about what you’re doing lately, you should make sure to set aside some time to do that!

One other project that we’ve been working on is redesigning the theme for the blog – so be on the lookout for some aesthetic changes in the near future…

04 February 2010 ~ 1 Comment